LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:12 December 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Dante’s Images of Sins Trickling Down To Naylor’s Linden Hills

Sadia Tabasum, M.A., M.Phil.

Abstract

Naylor in Linden Hills has depicted the loss of moral values and spiritual sensibility among the residents of Linden hills. Naylor here portrays a world in which black Americans have achieved status, respect, dignity and the most importantly power, but they are so involved in the worldly pleasures that they have forfeited their heart and soul. It follows Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. Though Naylor’s novel Linden hills (1985) is based on Dante’s Inferno, the hell she creates is in a middle class neighborhood, controlled by the Lucifer like man named Luther–Nedeed.

Key words: Moral degradation, respect, status, realism, allegory and inferno.

Introduction

Gloria Naylor was born on January 25, 1950. She is an African American novelist and educator. She was born in New York; she was the first child of Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. From a young age Naylor’s mother encouraged her to read and keep a journal.

In 1977 Naylor read her first novel, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, which gave her the courage to write. Her first novel is The Women of Brewster Place, and her second novel Linden Hills reflects a moral and spiritual sensibility and the kind of degradation that crept into the lives of people around her. Here she portrays a world in which black Americans have achieved status, respect, dignity and the most importantly, power, but they are so involved in worldly pleasures, that they have forfeited their heart and soul. It follows Dante Alighieri’s Inferno.

Dante

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy. His family had a history of involvement in the complex Florentine political scene. Later Dante had a strong inclination towards the study of philosophy and he also intensified his political involvement in Florence. In 1302 he was exiled for life by the leaders of the Black Guelph’s, the political faction in power at that time. The work The Divine Comedy has three books: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradise which depicts an allegorical journey through hell, around 1314 .Dante’s personal life and the writing of the Divine comedy were greatly influenced by the politics of late 13th Century Florence.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sadia Tabasum, M.A., M.Phil.
W/o Mansoor Ahmed
Opp. Park, Beernahallikere
Hoysalanagar
Hassan- 577132
Karnataka
India
sadia_tabasum@rediffmail.com
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